Kirsten Thorpe

Rediscovering Indigenous Languages: The Role and Impact of Libraries and Archives in Cultural Revitalisation

The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has embarked on a significant project to identify and make accessible materials in its collection relating to Indigenous Australian languages. The project Rediscovering Indigenous Languages seeks to reconnect Indigenous Australia people and the wider Australian community to word lists and vocabularies relating to the first languages of Australia. The various phases of the project – from research and curation, through to community engagement and collaboration – aim to connect with both Indigenous people and other language projects to assist with the process of language and cultural revitalisation.This paper will discuss principles and protocols guiding the work of the Rediscovering Indigenous Languages project, in particular the importance of encouraging active discussion with communities and linguists in regards to the use and revitalisation of these historical documentary resources. As a case study, this project demonstrates the importance of designing library...

Bridging Communities Foundations For The Interchange Of Ideas

Research undertaken with ones own community can be complex and demanding. It can also be valuable and fulfilling. Those who take on this challenge must often straddle variant roles, values, and perspectives with the potential for the strictures and structures of the academic community to be at odds with those of the partner community in research endeavours. These ‘double insiders’ can be valued for their bridging capacity and insight. However, they are also likely to be called upon to negotiate or mediate expectations, tensions, and differences between the research partners. This paper takes a new approach to a complex issue that is being increasingly discussed inside the academy by employing an autoethnographical approach to examine, holistically, this kind of researcher positioning. This paper brings together researchers from three very different community contexts – women with breast cancer, Records Continuum researchers and practitioners, and Indigenous Australian communities – each pursuing diverse research projects related to information technology and recordkeeping. The recounting of each researchers story and the subsequent shared discussion of key issues that emerge from each story relating to research design, reflexivity, and reciprocity offer new insights and considerations for frameworks addressing community-based research.

Using Modern Technologies to Capture and Share Indigenous Astronomical Knowledge

Indigenous Knowledge is important for Indigenous communities across the globe and for the advancement of our general scientific knowledge. In particular, Indigenous astronomical knowledge integrates many aspects of Indigenous Knowledge, including seasonal calendars, navigation, food economics, law, ceremony, and social structure. Capturing, managing, and disseminating this knowledge in the digital environment poses a number of challenges, which we aim to address using a collaborative project emerging between experts in the higher education, library, archive and industry sectors. Using Microsofts WorldWide Telescope and Rich Interactive Narratives technologies, we propose to develop software, media design, and archival management solutions to allow Indigenous communities to share their astronomical knowledge with the world on their terms and in a culturally sensitive manner.

Indigenous records: connecting, critiquing and diversifying collections

Kirsten Thorpe is the Coordinator of the Indigenous Unit at State Library of New South Wales. She is passionate about creating spaces of engagement for Aboriginal people to connect with archival sources documenting their history. Kirsten’s professional and research interests relate to the return of archival sources of material to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the opportunities that the digital domain presents for communities to be actively involved in managing their cultural heritage resources. Kirsten is a descendant of the Worimi people of Port Stephens, New South Wales and is descended from the Manton, Feeney and Newlin families.

Respect, trust and engagement: creating an Australian indigenous data archive

Purpose – This paper aims to demonstrate the work being done to develop a trusted digital archive for social sciences data relating to the indigenous peoples of Australia. It explores the issues that arise through respectful engagement with both indigenous communities and research communities as well as the development of pragmatic and effective data management planning strategies for higher education researchers.Design/methodology/approach – As a conceptual paper, the approach consists of a review of the current situation, a discussion of the work already undertaken by the project team, and an analysis of the challenges being faced and plans for ongoing development of the project.Findings – There are major challenges in tackling a project with issues of such complexity but the project has great significance because its success could contribute enormously to the indigenous communities to which the research relates while building the capacity of researchers to design respectful and effective data managemen...

Discovering Indigenous Australian Culture: Building Trusted Engagement in Online Environments

ABSTRACT Promoting and facilitating access to historical collections for Indigenous communities has recently increased across Australia. Such activities have been integrated into the practices of archives and libraries seeking to reunite Indigenous people with materials that not only document their past but also inform their future. Challenges in accessing these materials go beyond retrieval and include concerns about their emotional content. The State Library of New South Wales is working to create trusted environments for Indigenous peoples and collections with both physical and digital spaces. Through the presentation of work undertaken at the State Library, this article explores how the digital environment can be an effective extension of the physical site in which cultural collections are held. In addition, this article looks at issues that must be addressed to ensure the success and ongoing viability of Web spaces, specifically, the long-standing power dynamics that often dominate interactions with Indigenous collections and that have displaced power from the traditional owners of Indigenous knowledge.

Indigenous voices in the State Library of New South Wales

Abstract The State Library of New South Wales holds the world’s most extensive collection on the European exploration and colonisation of Australia and its region and the subsequent development of Australia. Much is held about the Indigenous peoples, some created by Indigenous artists and chroniclers, but the majority by others including explorers, government officers, missionaries and settlers as well as the more recent ethnographers, historians and writers. Many of the records are fragmentary and hidden within documents dealing with other matters. The State Library is working to make these records available in consultation with Indigenous communities. It also seeks to include more and stronger Indigenous voices to reflect on Indigenous experience and provide commentary on the material in the Library’s collections. The Library’s partnership with the New South Wales public library network offers a means for engagement with communities as well as an opportunity to provide better services to Indigenous people.

From principle to practice: community consultation regarding access to Indigenous language material in archival records at the State Library of New South Wales

Abstract In the context of Indigenous languages, archival science in Australia continues to move from a theoretical framework of considering record subjects as third parties to a ‘participants model’. In a participants model framework record subjects are considered co-creators and custodians of the intellectual property of the record. However, the shift from theory to practice is still an under-described challenge currently facing archival professionals. This article reports on an experience of applying guidelines developed by First Languages Australia (FLA) and National and State Libraries of Australasia (NSLA) aimed at enhancing the rights of Indigenous Australians over records that contain Indigenous language material. A team of researchers from the State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) Indigenous Services branch and Western Sydney University engaged with four Indigenous language groups to evaluate records containing Indigenous language material held at the SLNSW. On viewing the archival records of Indigenous language material members of community groups expressed a diversity of opinions and suggestions. This feedback was grouped by the authors into the following themes: painful remembrance of the provenance of the archival record, evaluations of the value of the documents, custodianship and use of the language material, and access to the SLNSW records. The authors found that participants in the study substantially shaped the process of implementing the protocols.

Connecting research data and indigenous communities

This poster demonstrates the program of consultation and associated technical workflow developed by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA) to support the digital return of research data to Indigenous Australian communities, while also facilitating data preservation and reuse in the research community and by the general public.

Diversity, inclusion & respect: Embedding Indigenous priorities in public library services

ABSTRACT This article discusses the importance of diversity and inclusion in the design of public library services. Drawing on a case study from the State Library of New South Wales in Australia, the article will outline the focused action of developing an Indigenous Services Business Plan. The Plan promotes inclusion and diversity across the organization to progress Indigenous priorities as core business of the Library. By sharing information on the research and engagement process undertaken, the authors hope to provide a framework that could be utilized by other public libraries to build the inclusion of disadvantaged and diverse communities into the design of library services.